Cincinnati is a U.S. city that is located in the state of Ohio and is the county seat of Hamilton County. It covers an area of seventy-nine square miles and has a population in excess of three hundred thousand residents. It is the third largest city in Ohio and is situated north of the Ohio river on the Ohio-Kentucky border. The city can trace its roots back to the eighteenth century when it was founded by John Cleves Symmes and Colonel Robert Patterson. In 1802, the city was chartered as a village and it was incorporated as a city in 1819. During the Civil War, the city played a vital role as a source of troops and supplies for the Union Army. It was also the headquarters for the Department of the Ohio, which was assigned the defence of the region and for the direction of the offensive into Kentucky and Tennessee. Fourteen years after the end of the Civil War, Procter & Gamble began manufacturing Ivory Soap in the city.

Today, Cincinnati is an important economic center in Ohio and is home to several large corporations which include Procter & Gamble, Sunny Delight, Kroger, the United States Playing Card Company, Macy’s, Inc., E. W. Scripps Company and the Great American Insurance Company. The largest employer in the city is the University of Cincinnati which employs almost sixteen thousand people. The city also boasts a thriving tourist trade and features many prominent attractions. Cincinnati Art Museum is a popular attraction in the city. It was founded in 1881 and is one of the oldest art museums in the country. The museum contains over sixty thousand works of art, which makes it one of the most comprehensive art collections that is located in the Midwest. Artists represented in its body of work includes Paul Chidlaw, Anna Claypoole Peale, Charles Wheeler Locke, Elizabeth Nourse, Frank Duveneck, Childe Hassam, Ferdinand Hodler, Peter Flotner, John Smart, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Ludolf Backhuysen, Anthony van Dyck, Yaozhou kilns, Nagasawa Rosetsu, Bikaner School, Paul Jones, Joseph Henry Sharp and Mary Virginia Keenan.

Another popular attraction in the city is the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden. The Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden is the second oldest zoo in the country and was opened in 1875. The oldest building in this zoo is the Reptile House. This zoo is situated on sixty-five acres and contains a wonderful
collection of animals which include Asian elephants, Masai giraffes, western lowland gorillas, snow monkeys, bearcat, Little Penguins, a white lion, African Penguins, aardvark, bats, cheetahs, tigers, Sumatran rhinoceros, Mexican wolves, Rhim Gazelle, Takin, American crocodile,American alligator, North American River Otters, Black rhinoceros, Indian rhinoceros, Japanese macaques, Sumatran orangutans, rhinoceros hornbills, Congo Peafowl, blue and gold macaws, bonobos, California Sea Lion, American eagles and polar bears.

The Taft Museum of Art is yet another popular museum in the city of Cincinnati. The building in which the museum is located was originally a villa that was built in 1820 by Martin Baum and was later the home of Nicholas Longworth. The Taft family lived in the house from 1873 until 1927. William H. Taft
accepted his presidential nomination in this house in 1908. The Taft family were avid collectors and dontated the home and its contents to the city in 1927. The museum has an extensive collection of European and American paintings which include ‘The Cobbler’s Apprentice’ by Frank Duveneck, ‘Portrait of a Man Rising from His Chair’ by Rembrandt van Rijn, ‘Song of the Talking Wire’ by Henry Farny and ‘At the Piano’ by James Abbott McNeill Whistler.

Coney Island Amusement Park is another one of Cincinatti’s attractions. This amusement park was started in the nineteenth century by James Parker, an apple orchard farmer. He realized that his orchard was a good location to attract visitors. He then sold the orchard to the Ohio Grove Corporation and in 1886 it opened as an amusement park. As the years went by, it added more and more features and eventually became a fully functioning amusement park complete with games, rides and vendors. Rides located here at Coney Island Amusement Park include roller coasters, pedal boats, Carousels, Flying Bobs, Bumper Boats, Tilt-A-Whirl, Bumper Cars, Scramblers, Spring Rides, Fun Slides and a Ferris wheel.

The Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame and Museum is a popular attraction among sports fans visiting the city. This establishment was founded by the Cincinnati Reds Baseball Franchise and pays tribute to the team through exhibits, multimedia presentations, photographs and displays. The Hall of Fame section has seventy-five inductees which include players, executives, manages and announcers of the team. A recent addition to the museum is an exhibit dedicated to Peter Rose. It contains bats, baseballs, gloves, shirts and hats that he wore through momentous games during his career. This museum is open year round and charges admission.

A famous bridge in the city is the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge. This bridge crosses the Ohio River and connects Cincinnati with Covington, Kentucky. It was opened in 1866, and at the time was the longest suspension bridge in the world with a one thousand and fifty-seven foot main span. I 1975, the
bridge was placed on the National Register of Historic Places and in 1983 was listed as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. Today, the bridge is used by people going between Paul Brown Stadium and Great American Ball Park to restaurants and bars in Kentucky. It is the busiest of the city’s four non expressway bridges. The John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge was originally called the Covington-Cincinnati Suspension Bridge but was renamed in honor of its designer John A. Roebling.